Rebirth in the 80s: The Scholar Wife is Cute

"Where's your husband then?" Li Shiping asked, somewhat puzzled.

The little boy had earlier mentioned that his dad was at work, but just now he said that the woman hadn't eaten for several days. If the woman's husband was indeed working, they shouldn't be struggling to afford food!

Upon hearing the word 'husband', tears instantly streamed down the woman's face, "That unlucky man died two years ago. I was afraid he'd meet bad people, so I had him tell others that."

Hearing this, Li Shiping looked at the woman with a heartache, "How do you two manage to live on a daily basis?"

The woman said, "When my back feels a bit better, I would go into the city to collect some scraps to sell for money, barely enough for the two of us to get by. This time the back pain has lasted longer, several days without getting better, so we've had to rely on him digging up wild vegetables to fill our stomachs."

Touching Tuantuan's forehead with affection, the woman said, "He saw that I was getting less and less energetic drinking wild vegetable soup these past two days, so he went into the city to beg for food."

Li Shiping finally understood why the store clerk mentioned the little boy came in every few days; he must have come to beg for food when his mother was sick.

As for why he came to this particular store, it's probably because, although the staff wasn't nice, they didn't drive him away, so he kept coming here to beg for food.

Li Shiping glanced at Ruan Yiqian, and without saying a word, Ruan Yiqian understood her intention and then said, "Big sister, let us take you to the hospital for a check-up!"

Li Shiping was worried Ruan Yiqian might refuse, but he was the one to suggest it directly, which delighted her, "Yes, big sister, let's take you to the hospital for a check!"

"No need, no need, this is just a chronic problem, and I'll be fine after lying in bed for a few days." The hospital would definitely cost a lot of money, and she didn't have a cent on her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let her child starve with her. The hospital simply wasn't a place she could afford to go to.

"You don't have to worry about the hospital expenses," said Li Shiping, fearing the woman would refuse, adding, "Tuantuan is still young and needs your care, so you must have a healthy body. At his age, other kids are in school, but he's here unable to get enough to eat. Big sister, you have to think more about your child."

Li Shiping's words struck a chord in the woman's heart, and she ultimately didn't speak her refusal.

Tuantuan, excited, attempted to kowtow to Li Shiping and Ruan Yiqian but was stopped by them. After the two of them finished their noodles, Ruan Yiqian then helped the woman into the car.

Never having imagined she would have the chance to ride in a car in her lifetime, the woman was extremely nervous. On the ride, she recounted her situation: her name was Ma Fenyu, and after marrying her husband, they had Tuantuan followed by a daughter, Yuanyuan.

After her husband's accident, her in-laws kicked her out, her own parents were gone, and her brother and sister-in-law were unwilling to help, so she alone, with two children, remarried a forty-odd-year-old bachelor who turned out to be abusive. The mother and her two children were often beaten, until one day the man accidentally killed her daughter and then fled out of fear, still not caught to this day.

Her heart was utterly broken, and she no longer wished to remarry. She took her son to Beijing, but being uneducated, illiterate, and with a child in tow, she couldn't find a job and had to rely on picking up trash to make ends meet. An ailment developed from years of strenuous farm work, which, due to lack of money for treatment, was getting progressively worse, hence their life became more and more difficult.

Li Shiping felt deep sympathy for her plight, and to her surprise, the woman was about her own age, yet had been so worn down by life.

Ruan Yiqian, who had been silent, drove quietly, listening to the conversation between the two women.